Shubman Gill takes the first step up

February 12 2018 by Vishaal Loganathan

Shubman Gill has just won the Under-19 World Cup with India in New Zealand. No sooner had he landed in Mumbai, than he had to attend a felicitation ceremony. Even before the euphoria on the win has faded, Gill had been flown to Bengaluru to represent the Punjab team in the Vijay Hazare tournament - the domestic One-Day competition. His family - his father and siblings to be precise - have flown to Bengaluru to be with Gill, but he is yet to see his mother.

The past week must have been an entirely new one for Gill and his family. One week ago, he was still just the exciting prospect. Now he is a World Cup winner, even if it's at the Under-19 level, and on someone whose everyone's eyes are trained on. In the Punjab squad for the Vijay Hazare tournament, Shubman Gill had to show he was ready to take the step up. After three less than impressive performances in the first three games, Gill rose to the occasion.

In a truncated game against hosts, Karnataka, Gill put in a performance that not only smacked of a potential waiting to burst onto the scene but also of a player with an astute cricketing brain. In a game that was close to make or break for Punjab, Gill put in an innings from the top drawer. It was the pacing of his innings that stood out as the richest feature.

The young right-hander assessed his threats admirably, playing cautiously against Karnataka's pacers, especially Vinay Kumar, and then freed his arms when the spinners came into play. Off his first 31 balls, only seven runs were scored, but once the spinners came in, he entered a more free-flowing phase. K Gowtham was taken for a six, while Praveen Dubey was handled even more severely. Gill did not unduly panic when runs weren't flowing for him. He put his head down, put a price on his wicket and ensured he cashed in soon after.

"I just wanted to back myself at that moment. Mandeep and I were thinking we should face the first 10 overs, which was the difficult phase, and then take it from there. I had the belief in myself that if I play till the first drinks break, then I can score easily after that," Gill said after the match.

His footwork against the spinners was a delight to watch as well. Karnataka tried to dry his boundaries by packing the leg-side field. There were three fielders in the deep, and two more saving the singles when the spinners were operating. Gill, however, continued to pick off boundaries. He would stay back to easily clip off his hips for singles and waited for the bowler to pitch the ball up. When the opportunity arose, he skipped down the track and flicked balls between square leg and mid-wicket for boundaries. When the bowler tried to stop him by bowling a tad wider, Gill slammed the ball out of the park. Better players have become more anxious for less, but Gill had the belief in his game and read the game well enough to force himself out of a tough situation.

"Over a period of time I've developed the trait of making sure I play till the end and not play fancy shots after getting in. With the match starting at 9, it was important to see off the pacers. It's a lot more easier to rotate strike when the spinners were on. I think the wicket was helpful for the pacers, not so much for the spinners. I practice the shots, like stepping down the wickets and then the pull and cut shots. My father has been my coach. He taught me things like stepping down to the spinners," Gill added.

It is the kind of innings international players pride themselves on. This was no mindless slogging on a flat track. It was no smashing a weak attack to smithereens either. Gill showed he thought about and executed his innings. He planned his attacks and committed himself when there was the chance. When the opposition's plan changed, he adapted beautifully and when he found scoring tough, he grit his teeth and fought it out.

He spoke of how important it was for him to forget the failures he had endured in the first three games. And the strong mental ability to put it behind him and score in a high-pressure game stood out on Sunday.

But he would have seen plenty on the day to take back home. While Gill was ready to take on the spinners and heave them handsomely outside the ground, which he did on two occasions, his attack against the pacers did not prove to be as effective. He was only able to hit three fours and a six off the pacers in the entire innings, out of which one four and a six came towards the end of the innings.

Gill would have seen, later in the innings, how KL Rahul, the other centurion on the day, struggled to score freely against the pacers too. But the Karnataka opener soon started to use the pace of the bowlers to get runs. The uppish flick came to good use, while he was always waiting for the slower ball to dispatch into the stands. That was, but, just a small drawback of a hugely entertaining knock. It spoke of what we could all see a lot of in the future.

"Virat Kohli invents the short-arm jab, and Shubman Gill reproduces it," a BCCI video proudly proclaimed after Gill had pulled off the tough shot against Zimbabwe in the Under-19 World Cup. Any comparison, especially with one of the best players, should be taken with a pinch of salt, but it sat easily on Gill.

He was after all, just like Kohli, an Under-19 World Cup winner. His cover drives have Kohli's style all over - with the bottom hand commanding a flick that helps the ball race to the boundary. The appetite for runs is quite apparent too. In Alur, against hosts Karnataka, Gill displayed a sense for the game and a structure to his innings that reminded of Kohli.

Outside of the field, Gill could not be more different than Kohli. He is soft spoken (with extra emphasis on soft) to a point that his words are hardly audible. He sits silently during meetings and smiles as teammates Mandeep Singh, Siddharth Kaul and Yuvraj Singh jibe and joke loudly. He is the odd one out in the team that has plenty of players with streaks of colour in their hair, tattoos and headbands. But when he's on the field, he looks a red-hot batsman ready to take on everything.

His work at the Under-19 World Cup, rightly, attracted eyeballs, and soon some money during the IPL auction. His lowest score was the 31-ball 30 he made during the final. Before that, each time he batted, he made a fifty. In Youth ODIs, his average is a dizzying 100-plus with a similar strike rate to boost.

But now, having done all he could at that level, Gill had to show he belonged on a more competitive stage. After a start that faltered, he showed that there is a great chance that he does.